


Dilemma

by anniewhovian



Category: Original Work
Genre: F/M, Romantic Soulmates, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, Tattoos
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-02-24
Updated: 2017-02-23
Packaged: 2018-09-26 13:57:51
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 636
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/9901664
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/anniewhovian/pseuds/anniewhovian
Summary: Briar Kerns refuses to let anyone other than herself lead her life, but when her soulmate mark appears on her sixteenth birthday and the tattoo artist she visits to get it removed turns out to be her soulmate, Briar finds out that sometimes, letting other people influence your decisions isn't all that bad.





	

Briar Kerns was her own person. She kept her thoughts purely her own, following her own mind and heart. Mistakes were made, of course, but Briar always felt herself sleeping contently with the knowledge that the mistakes were completely hers. Briar lived by the Oscar Wilde quote from ‘De Profundis’: “Most people are other people. Their thoughts are someone else's opinions, their lives a mimicry, their passions a quotation”. Briar refused to be a mimicry. 

Therefore, on Briar’s sixteenth birthday when her soulmate mark appeared, the name Cameron scrawled on her wrist, she immediately left for the tattoo parlor. Briar wasn’t going to let the universe guide her love life. She refused. The sooner the mark was covered the sooner she could go back to life as normal. 

“I’d like to have my name covered up, please.” The guy behind the counter just nods and Briar feels a sense of relief. She had come for a tattoo, not judgment, and she was pleased to find that the tattoo artist was indeed impartial. She follows him back to the chair, humming softly as she turns her wrist so he can work. 

“I don’t even care exactly what the design is, just something floral. As long as you can’t even tell there was a name there.” The artist nods, making conversation as he carefully cleans Briar’s wrist.

“You’re the third soulmate tattoo I’ve done today. Cameron, huh?” 

Briar waves her other hand through the air. “It doesn’t matter, I’m not going to let the stupid universe decide who I am and am not allowed to date.”

The artist nods, moving to grab the ink and tattoo needle. “Yeah, I totally get it. Personally, I’d like to find my soulmate but,” he shrugs, smiling, “that’s just me.”

She watches as he prepares the needle before her entire body freezes.

His wrist read “Briar”.

Briar’s mind starts racing. Was his name Cameron? Was he her soulmate, or was it some other Briar whose name was on his wrist? Should she even mention it? Was he avoiding mentioning it because she was here to get her tattoo covered? Mentioning it herself seemed to go against the very reason she was here, but he had said that he wanted to find his soulmate, and who was she to deprive him of that? She jerks her arm away before the needle touches it.

“Wait! Wait, wait, wait, wait, wait!” 

He looks shocked before his eyes widen. “Are you…. Are you Briar?”

She nods slowly, her voice soft. “Hi, Cameron.”

Cameron puts the needle back down, his hands shaking. “I… I didn’t want to say anything…”

Briar shakes her head. “No, I get it completely. I came here to get my tattoo covered and you…. I mean…. I don’t even know what to say.” She brushes her hair from her face with a short, shy laugh.

Cameron runs his hand through his hair. “I totally get it if you don’t want to… Do you still want the tattoo?”

Briar blinks before shaking her head. “No, I uh, I don’t think I do. Um, when does your shift end?”

Cameron grins. “Whenever I want it to, this is my dad’s parlor.”

Briar grins back, hopping up. “Well, soulmate, want to go for lunch then?”

Cameron laughs softly, nodding as he puts the needle and ink away. “That would be great. I call paying.”

Briar snorts. “You don’t have to do that, for one, and for two, you ‘call’ paying? I didn’t realize paying was something you called.”

Cameron laughs. “If you can call dibs to sit shotgun in a car, why can’t you call dibs to pay?”

“I can’t even with you.”

Cameron snorts before grinning. “Can you odd with me?”

“I’m breaking up with you.”

“I didn’t realize we were together.”

“We aren’t anymore.”

**Author's Note:**

> come talk to me at anniehovian.tumblr.com  
> Thanks for reading!


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